A Friend In Love
by sporkoflife
Summary: Sirius's reaction to James's new relationship with Lily is a bit different to what was expected. This story takes place (obviously) when the group were still in Hogwarts, and is told in Sirius's point of view.
1. Chapter 1

I know, I know, I've died for a while, but I'm back with a new story, and since quite a few people asked about the old one, I'll get working on that one again later on if I can find all the files I saved it under.  
  
This is a completely new story and follows a different theme to my usual ones. So please review ;-) Hopefully i'll get the rest of the story out to you soon. All of this is done is Sirius's POV.  
  
As always, I don't own any of these characters. Now on with Chapter One!  
  
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I sat down hard on the log, and glared at the leafy floor. I knew I was sulking, but I didn't care. 5am. What kind of moron wakes up at 5am? I had MUCH better things to be doing than sitting in the middle of the bloody Forbidden Forest. If I was going to get attacked by some stupid trees and who knows what else from inside this stupid place, then couldn't I at least do it at a NORMAL time, when I have had a NORMAL amount of sleep?   
  
I felt someones hand on my shoulder. Remus's probably, Peter was too pathetic to even try that on me. Well, maybe intelligent in this case because anyone who dared to annoy me at 5am was asking for it. "Get off." I hissed, and shoved his hand away, before returning to staring at the floor. Just 5 minutes. Give me 5 minutes to wake up properly, and I'll be in a better mood. Until I realise that I'm still in the middle of a stinking forest, that is. I suddenly felt something odd on my back, and jumped up, throwing my arms over my head, before I noticed Remus staring at me with a bemused look on his face, a few leaves still left in his hands.  
  
"Do you have a newly developed leaf phobia?" He asked me. Peter sniggered slightly, just like he always does. He probably doesn't even know what a phobia **is**, but he'll still laugh along blankly because that's all he knows how to do. I gave him an evil glance and he shut up instantly, but still flashed a nervous, goofy grin at me. I ignored him and turned back to Remus.  
  
"No, I just don't want leaves in my hair, that's all." I told him. Well, he might think it's pathetic, but it's better than telling him I was worried the trees were attacking me isn't it? He nodded though, and put the leaves down.   
  
"I think one of us should go back and get James." He said. "He's missing out by not being here." I looked around. Yes. He is really missing out. 3 people, sitting in complete silence, in the middle of a dark forest.   
  
"He's probably gone back to sleep." I told him. Remus nodded.  
  
"I would say so. But then...it's not exactly like him to put up an even bigger fight than you, is it?" I shook my head.  
  
"Let's go back up there and look for him." Get a few minutes more sleep, while I'm up there.  
  
"Nah, we'll just start the discussion now." Remus said, and began a talk on how yesterdays events had gone. Despite how tired I was, I couldn't resist laughing along with his descriptions, he always knew how to make me laugh. And it **was** funny. See, every morning we would get up and discuss what we were going to do to Snape that day. And honestly, there is nothing I like more than annoying Snape. Only, we usually get up around 7, but I think Snape must have noticed because yesterday he wondered right into the middle of our talk. This ruined our plans completely, but hey, it turns out we're pretty good at thinking up new plans on the spur of the moment. And that's why today we're up at 5, we can't risk him wondering in on our talks and bringing a teacher in with him this time. Though personally, I would rather risk the teacher, because yesterday was just so hilarious.  
  
"So, what do you think we should do today?" I asked, staring straight at Peter. On que, he instantly giggled at me and said nothing. Right. Whatever. "This isn't fair. Every single day it's been me, Remus or James thinking up the ideas. I think it's about time that **you** had an idea." I told him, staring directly into his eyes and making him squirm.  
  
"Sirius, I've got a plan though." Remus said. "Basically, I was thinking that with the amount of success we got last time we - "  
  
"I think we'll use your plan as backup." I told him without looking away from Peter. "I'm sure it's a great plan but it's not fair for you to be doing all the work when Peter hasn't helped us out at all. Now. Peter. What do you think we should do?"  
  
"I liked Remus's plan." He said, giggling loudly.   
  
"You didn't even hear his plan!" I snapped. "So you don't know if you like it or not! Should I speak slowly, will you get it then? What - should - we - do?" Peter giggled at me, but I wasn't about to back down. Saying nothing, I continued staring at him until the nervous grin was wiped off his face.  
  
"Um...I...I think that...we should...we should um..." He looked at Remus for support. I couldn't see his face, but he said nothing. "OK...um...I think...we should steal the curtains from his bed!" He said triamphantly. I stared at him in blank disbelief. I turned to Remus, who was doing the same.  
  
"WHAT?" I shrieked at him, jumping from my log. "How is that even a suggestion? What is wrong with you?" He gave me a goofy grin, which just flared my temper even more. "THIS IS RIDICULOUS!" I screamed. "You never do anything! All you ever do is sit there and giggle at us, well I'm not having this any more. Why can't you just - "   
  
"SHUT UP." Hissed Remus suddenly. I turned to him, preparing to start an argument. See, there are reasons why you don't wake me up this damn early in the morning. He shook his head at me, and then sat bolt upright, his eyes focusing on the top of his head, listening intently.   
  
"What do you - "  
  
"Ssh!" We paused like this for a moment more, Remus in his odd position, me staring at him, and Peter looking uncomfortable. After a few seconds, he looked to an area just west of where we were, then back at me, smirking slightly. "Over there." He said, nodding in the direction he had previously looked in.  
  
"What did you hear?" I asked. He shrugged.  
  
"Someone. Human someone." He said. "I don't know who, but I'm betting it's Snape, coming to foil our plans of eevviill," he said, doing a very good impression of Snape's voice. "Come. Let's find out." He dived on the ground and crawled a few paces forward, pausing for us. I dropped down beside him, laughing evilly to myself, and followed him. I could hear Peter drop down behind us and crawl along as well. It's amazing how much I will object to being woken up, but will happily crawl along in the mud, but oh well, that's life for you. We had only been crawling for around a minute, if that, when Remus stopped suddenly, and we paused behind him. He looked at me, a gleam in his eye, and then began quietly making a hole in the bush in front of him, peering through it. I don't think I have ever seen him look so gleeful. Even when we are torturing Snape he doesn't seem to enjoy it this much.  
  
"What do you see?" I asked him. He turned to me and smiled again, but didn't answer the question. I repeated it, sounding a bit more irritated this time.   
  
"Sirius, you really need to get yourself some patience." Remus whispered, shaking his head at me and moving back slightly. "I hear you can get some very well priced ones at Hogsmeade, actually." He said, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Yeah, yeah." I said, smirking, and moved over to look through the hole as well. It took me a moment to realise what was going on. A flash of light hair, amongst black hair. But that guy wasn't Snape, Snape wasn't built like that, it was...James. My eyes bulged slightly as I recognised the figure, and Remus chuckled lightly next to my ear.  
  
"That was my reaction too." He giggled. "I mean, Lily and James? Something up with **that** pairing, for sure."   
  
"Lily?" I asked him, and looked back through the hole. He was right. I hadn't even looked at her, just the shock of James abandoning us to be with some random girl was enough for me. "Lily Evans?" I don't know why I was asking for clarification, it wasn't like I couldn't see the person perfectly anyway. Remus nodded.   
  
"Lily Evans." He repeated. "Who would have thought?"  
  
"Not me." I said, shaking my head. "I would have thought - " I paused. James was looking in our direction. "Can he - " I began to ask Remus.  
  
"I don't know how." He said, frowning slightly. "Back up slightly." I did as I was told, but I could still feel James' glance on us.   
  
"Wormtail? Is that you?" James called over. Me and Remus looked at each other, before turning back to see what Peter was doing. He was quite a way back from us, lying flat on the ground, his head in the direction away from us. That absolute moron. No wonder we were spotted, he wasn't exactly easy to miss, this bloody gigantic lump's head in full view of them.   
  
"What do we do?" Remus whispered.  
  
"WE RUN." I said, without any other hestitations. I jumped up and took the lead, Remus close behind me, Peter's heavy footsteps in the distance behind us.   
  
"We should wait." Remus said, slowing down.  
  
"NO - WAY!" I grabbed his arm and pulled him forwards. I heard a loud shriek and a thud from behind us. James must have caught up with Peter. That or the fat oaf had fallen over himself, both likely stories. But whatever, there was no way I was going to wait for him now. "Just keep going!" I yelled at Remus, pulling him as fast as I could towards the castle, and back to our dorm. 


	2. Chapter 2

As we made it back to the dorm, I collapsed on Remus's bed and he fell next to me as well, breathless. I started giggling slightly, and after a few confused glances, he did as well.

"Can't believe...we didn't notice...what Peter...was doing!" I said, talking between deep breaths. Remus laughed softly to himself and I threw my head down on his pillow, pushing my hand against my heart in an attempt to slow the pace of it down.  
  
"I know. It was certainly...odd..." He said, giggling. "The whole thing was very odd, there aren't any other words to describe it!" I laughed and shook my head.

"I'd have never have guessed."

"Me neither."

"He always seemed to hate her though. He complained about her all the time. I always thought that they'd end up killing each other one day." Remus paused thoughtfully.

"Maybe it's true, then."

"Maybe what's true?"

"That if a guy picks on someone constantly, it means they fancy them." We both paused, thinking.

"Yeah, right." I said, giving him an odd look. "If that's true, not only am I going to grow up gay and form a wonderful relationship with Snape, but I better start fighting you, James, and the rest of the word for him now!" Remus chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"It would be a quick way to end the world though, I suppose." I told him. "I mean, how quickly would everyone be killed? We'd all be jumping on each other so that we can be the perfect lover for Snapey. I would win of course, so sorry if I have to kill you at any point in the future." Remus nodded solemnly.

"And I too am sorry for when I have to kill you." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"You better be staying away from my man," I said, holding up a fist. Remus laughed loudly and pulled his shoe off, causing me to yell and cover my head. At which point, the door slammed open and an irritated looking James walked in, carrying an aimlessly giggling Peter in his left hand.

"Now." He said, coldly. "I think it's time we - " He stopped, and looked at us, me curled up in a ball with Remus standing above me, holding his huge show above my head threateningly. I uncurled myself slowly, and gave him a very serious look. To the side of me, Remus dropped the shoe on the floor and pulled the other one off next to it. I ran my fingers through my hair quickly, my expression never changing. "Right. Well." James muttered, looking nowhere near as furious as he had seemed to be a few seconds before. "Just...just don't stalk me again, alright?"

"It was hardly stalking." I said, ignoring Remus's jabs into my chest. "You were right next to us."

"Yeah, guess you're right." James said, sighing. That was an unexpected response. Why wasn't he yelling at me or throwing things? I couldn't work out whether I preferred to be safe, or to have the normal James back. I looked at him for a while, unsure of what to say. Remus pushed me over slightly and sat down next to me.

"So, how long has this been going on?" He asked.

"Since this morning, really." He said. I smirked at him, but he shook his head at me. "Sirius, I wouldn't have believed it either." He said in a very confused way. "It was just...you know I was late getting up, right?" We both nodded. "Well just as I was coming down after you, I bumped into her. And...she said some things...I said some things back...it was a strange experience...and then I went into the forest after you. Well, just as I was getting to the forest, she came up behind me, said some more things, and...well...that's when you came along." I nodded.

"I take it you aren't going to tell us what these THINGS are?" I asked him. He stared at me.

"Do you really want to know the details, Si?" He asked.

"Oh...lovey dovey kind of details." I said, pulling a face. James nodded. "Well you still abandoned us." I said, frowning slightly. "We had to wake up at 5am and we didn't even get to have the meeting. We could have stayed in bed," I said, glaring at Remus, who ignored me completely.

"I'm sorry. I'd have rather been with you and you know that. But things happen." He said, shrugging. "We can have the meeting now."

"The moods gone." I said, shaking my head. "I think the whole situation died after Peter here suggested we take away Snape's bedcurtains as some kind of cruel, cruel revenge." James stared at me. "Yeah, that's what we said."

"I don't get it." He said, in a questionning voice. I shrugged, but he ignored me and shook his head at Peter instead. "What is wrong with you?" He asked, in a mystified voice. "First you think we should steal curtains...I mean what kind of revenge is that?" He walked over to Peter's bed and pulled back the curtains, doing a hilarious impression of an upset face. "Oh no, are you going to go and cry now?" He asked, his voice getting louder. "Is you all upsetted cos your curtains are not there? And then," He continued. "You are the worst hider EVER. I mean, I get that you guys shouldn't have been watching me and all, but I can live with that. I just worry about our future plans if you are going to hide that pathetically, surely you knew that we could see you?" I burst into a loud fit of laughter, and James joined me. Peter didn't seem to react at all, and I was just about to start insulting him some more until I got something out of him, when Remus gave us a stern look.

"Just cut it out now you two, we get the point." He said.

"Yeah, but it's funny, cos - " James began.

"It's funny to an extent." Remus said, cutting him off. "Now you're getting out of line, just give it a rest, he's your friend remember, and he's never done anything like that to you two, so you should stop doing it to him." Smirking slightly, James apologised to Remus, still refusing to acknowledge Peter.

"Yeah, but the only reason he doesn't do it back is because he knows that we will kick his - " Remus shot me a dirty look and I shut up. "Sorry Remus," I said, sighing, smirking slightly at James's giggles from my side. "Honestly Remus, you should lighten up a bit, we're only having a bit of fun. We don't mean any harm." He ignored me, and I decided it was best not to push it any further, but couldn't help exhanging looks and smirking at James on a few ocassions.

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I nudged James as Lily entered the Great Hall. He looked up vaguely to see what it was I wanted to show him, shrugged slightly, and then went back to putting bacon on his plate. She noticed me staring over at her and gave a nervous wave, which I ignored completely. I felt a bit mean actually. It's not LIKE me to feel mean and I hated that I was, but she didn't do anything to me, I was just irritated for some unknown reason. Next to me, James was still ignoring her and piling more and more bacon onto his plate, eyeing a particuarly large piece of mine that I was poking with my fork.

"Hey, James." Remus said quietly, looking in Lily's direction. James nodded but remained silent, still checking up on what everyone else was having for breakfast. I looked up at her. She was still staring at James, trying to will him to look up at her. This was just nasty. And not picking-on-Snape kindof nasty, because that was just plain funny. Lily's friend, a girl she was normally with, pulled her arm slightly and tried to pull her away. After a few seconds more, Lily shook her head at him, and followed the girl to two seats at the end of the table.

"She's gone." I told him. James nodded.

"Good." He looked up briefly to see where she had gone, and instantly looked downwards as he caught her eye.

"James..." I began. He nodded, but didn't look up. "Oh, just have it." I snapped, throwing my piece of bacon on his plate. "Maybe it's you that should turn into a dog, you're sitting there begging like one." I looked over to see if Lily was still watching us. She wasn't, but I felt certain I had felt her eyes on us a moment before. She was helping a friend with what looked like potions homework. Oh, crap. Potions homework. Oh well, like the teacher was going to do anything if I didn't hand it in. She must have felt my eyes on me as she turned to look at me. I smiled weakly and she did the same back, before going back to her friend, watching me out of the corner of her eye. She was nice, but not in an annoying way. She still looked like she would be able to have a lot of fun. I was actually beginning to regret not getting to know her before. I'd seen her around a lot but I'd pretty much ignored her, or joined James in the taunting of her. Now I wasn't really sure why. She had a lot of good qualities. She was the sort of person I'd want hanging around me when James and the others were annoying me, and she was quite pretty as well.

Okay, so this may seem a little sudden to you. I'll admit something. I've been having these thoughts for about 3 weeks now, but they were just never as vivid in my mind until the events of yesterday. I know, I know, pathetic.

"I wish they'd stop looking over at me." James muttered, breaking my thoughts. I didn't say anything. I wanted to say something, about how it was his own fault and how he could do better. But I knew I should be being supportive.

"Well, you're kindof asking for it aren't ya?" Remus asked. "You were all over the girl yesterday, now you won't even look at her."

"I guess it just shows how loved I am at this school then doesn't it, if I can afford to get away with doing that?" James asked. I laughed slightly. James was always like that. Well, so was I, but for once I didn't think it was fair. Me and James, the opinionated, arrogant ones of the group. But I wouldn't say a thing.

I'd been watching her for a while. Not just now, but I'd just noticed her around school a lot more. I didn't have any plans to say anything or do anything, it was just fun to watch. And now...well...now what the hell did I do?

"Guh!" I yelled. "My potions book! I left it in my room!" I said, standing up. James gave me a confused look.

"You always forget your potions book, it's never stopped you before. Just share with one of us."

"I know, but he threatened me with suspension if I forget it again."  
  
"He threatens you with suspension every single time!" James said, sounding suspicious.

"I know, but it's just irritating me now. Normally I'm fine. A little bit of arguing here and there makes my day. But it's getting too far, I'm going to whack him if he bugs me about it this time!" James accepted this. I got up and headed for the dorms, Remus following behind me like I'd known he would. I held the door open for him before marching in and searching under his bed, while he closed it quietly behind him and leant against the door.

"What's going on?" He asked, calmly. "The great rebellious Sirius Black, caring about what his potions teacher thinks? I don't think so. What's up?"

I laughed nervously. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me." He sat down on his bed and looked at me. "You might be surprised at the things I can help you with." Well, it wouldn't be the first time. Him and his reading. He was always filled with information and help. And it wasn't that I couldn't trust Remus, infact he was probably the must trustworthy person I knew.

"I don't think it's fair how James is treating Lily." I said, after a pause.

"Why? He's always like that and you've never had problems before. He's not acting much worse than what you do. What's the real problem here?" I cringed slightly.

"It's just that...Lily's a nice girl." I said, not looking him in the eye.

"She's so nice that you and James spend around an hour a day stealing her books and threatening to throw them in the lake?" I squirmed some more.  
  
"So I've changed my mind lately." I said. I looked up at him, willing him to know what I wanted to tell him, without actually having to say the words. "She's...nicer than I thought she was." Remus didn't speak for a while. His face was completely blank, but I knew he'd worked out what I was trying to say.  
  
"She's with James, Sirius." He said, softly.

"Well it's not like he cares whether she is or isn't!" I snapped. Remus kept the same steady, calm expression.

"That's just his way of putting things. Of course he cares. James cares about a lot, he just doesn't want us to think he's got any emotions at all." He said. "You might think he doesn't care about Peter by the way he insults him constantly, but if there was fight between him and someone else he'd be there in a second. He keeps things hidden like you do, but I know you'd be there in a flash if there was a fight with Peter as well." I shook my head.

"Don't bring me into this, that isn't what this is about." I said.

"Well I just thought you could relate. Stay out of it Sirius, he wouldn't appreciate it if you ruin some great relationship for him."

"What about - " I began, before stopping myself. What about a great relationship for me just sounded so wrong.

"Yes?" Asked Remus, kindly. I shook my head.

"Forget it." I said coldly. "I'm not that bothered anyway."

"Would you like me to tell James?"

"NO." Like he'd ever let me forget it. "Just pretend we never had this conversation, okay?"

"Okay. But don't forget what I said."

"Right. Whatever." I hissed, marching to the door.  
  
"Sirius, potions book."

"Right. Thanks. Whatever." I said, walking back and picking it up before returning to the door and slamming it open.


End file.
